By JIM MOORE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, January 24, 2005

No one is sure why Don Poier died in his sleep at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver on Friday. It will take four to six weeks to determine the cause through toxicology and lab tests.

Poier, 53, had been the voice of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies since their inception in Vancouver, B.C., in 1995 and followed them to Memphis in 2001.

Before taking the Grizzlies' job, Poier was best known in his native Northwest as sports director at KING-TV in the 1980s. He then held a similar position at KCPQ and later called action of Pac-10 games and hydro races.

"Don was passionate about Northwest sports," former KCPQ colleague Keith Shipman said. "He loved the Huskies and hydros, and not necessarily in that order."

Poier worked with a variety of color analysts, from Sonics president Wally Walker on college basketball games to former Sonic Michael Cage on Grizzlies games.

Those who knew him say Poier was always cheerful and optimistic, finding good in the Grizzlies even in the worst of times.

"There are only 30 jobs like this," Poier would say. "Can you believe I've got one of them?"

In the summertime, Poier and his wife, Barbara, returned to Western Washington in their 36-foot Pace Arrow RV. Poier played in the Bruce King and Jim Lambright charity golf tournaments and the Whatcom County Boys and Girls Clubs Invitational at Bellingham CC.

"He was as genuinely nice a person as I've ever met," said Lynn Templeton, director of Whatcom County Boys and Girls Clubs.

A three-sport prep standout, Poier played first base, forward and punter/quarterback/tight end/defensive back at Snohomish High School. He starred on Dick Armstrong's first league-champion football team in 1968, earning all-state honors as a DB.

After playing basketball for one year on the freshmen team at Washington State, Poier transferred to Pacific Lutheran, where he played defensive end in 1972-73 for another legendary coach, Frosty Westering.

P-I columnist Art Thiel, who was two years behind Poier at PLU, recalled Poier's "wonderful baritone voice. It almost made your chest vibrate. It was clear he had the pipes for doing something in broadcasting."

Then there was that upbeat personality, Thiel saying: "He was one of those guys who automatically engaged you with a joke or enthusiastic greeting."

Even as an "outsider," Poier was accepted, then embraced in Memphis. Several players wrote Don P. or D.P. on their shoes before Friday's game in Denver.

"The world has lost one of its nicest, most caring people," Shipman said.

A memorial service will be held Monday at 3 p.m. at Calvin Presbyterian Church, 18826 3rd Ave. N.W. in Seattle, where Poier and his wife were married.